Video: Braving the Scary/ Beautiful Burmese Fire Balloon Festival

When I was traveling in Asia last month, I serendipitously arrived at Burma's Inle Lake at the precise time to catch its annual Tazaungdaing (fire-balloon) festival. Insane. Awesome. Thrilling. Watch the video—it gets really interesting around the 50-second mark.

When I was traveling in Asia last month, I serendipitously arrived at Burma's Inle Lake at the precise time to catch its annual Tazaungdaing (fire-balloon) festival.

Local teams of men spend a full month creating huge paper balloons, shaped like animals and lavishly decorated, which are then brought to an enormous field and set off one by one. They're heated with smoke from bamboo torches until they inflate, then the teams attach a flaming wick and send their balloons soaring off—unmanned.

The day I was there was a windy day, so only one out of every three balloons made it into the air. The teams of those that did celebrated by banging cymbals and drums, and chanting and dancing. But the crowd seemed to enjoy the balloons that failed just as much, as they quite literally crashed and burned, often in spectacular fashion.

In the evening, the field was packed with people—enough to fill multiple stadiums, tens of thousands of people. Market stalls were set up, selling clothing, fried tofu, tattoos. Full-size carnival rides opened. A Miss Taunggyi beauty contest was held. A pop-music concert played to the huge crowd. But the main event was the balloons. Seventeen of them were set aloft that night, and many, like this one, were outfitted with a pallet of fireworks that is lit just as the balloon is released. The fireworks start to go off almost immediately after takeoff, and on the best balloons they continue, changing colors and styles, until the balloon can no longer be seen—perhaps 15 minutes or more.

Safe? Oh hell no, but that’s part of what makes it fun, knowing that the crowd could all be set aflame by burning firework shrapnel if one of the balloons fails to make it aloft in time. That's what made me a little nervous here—check out what happens around the 50-second mark.

But here’s what’s awesome, especially after the inescapable hordes of tourists elsewhere in the country: The masses that came to see this festival were all Burmese. There were perhaps a few dozen Western tourists, but they were all sitting in the “tourist viewing area” far from the action, and…well, I wasn’t. I was able to watch the first few balloons from the officials’ stand, and spen the rest of the event sitting on empty rice sacks, just like everyone else, among the drunk locals who all wanted to talk with “The Foreigner” (aka me).

What a spectacle. Between the balloons, the fireworks, the market, the carnival rides, and the indescribable crowd, it was kind of like every Independence Day, Thanksgiving Parade, New Year’s in Times Square, and NYC street market all rolled together into one festival. Insane. Awesome, in the literal sense. Thrilling.